doll on a bike

One thing about living in New York I love is when I have random sightings of actors, musicians and designers-I'm just a girl from Idaho where those types of things just don't happen everyday. My latest sighting was of Syl Sylvain from the New York Dolls.

image via

I met Syl when the Dolls last album came out and I was told that I was "good people" by Syl when he found out I had moved to New York from Utah. The fantastic documentary New York Doll had just come out about Artur "Killer" Kane and the Dolls were having a minor comeback due in part to the film and their reunion performance at the Meltdown festival in 2004. This time I was standing on the corner of Prince and West Broadway in Soho talking to my friend on the phone. A man on a bike came to a sudden stop right in front of me as the light turned red. I looked right at him and automatically said "Syl Sylvain?, yes?". He smiled and nodded. I think he was surprised to be recognized let alone by someone who wasn't even born while the Dolls were together. We had a brief conversation and then he was on his way. I just stood their watching him ride away in shock that I had run into him in such a weird random way.

This is one of my favorite songs by the Dolls, it's a legendary performance that inspired many great musicians. They're nasty and dirty, everything rock n' roll should be.



--heidi